He described Southern Baptists as a convention of churches working together to fulfill the Great Commission, and North Carolina as not a politically based group, but a group based on “the Lamb who was slain.
McLaurin, the first African American to lead a national entity, thanked pastors for their sacrificial support of the Cooperative Program.
RELATED: Former ‘Terrible Racist’ Finds Jesus and Apologizes to Black Church
“The Cooperative Program is the financial fuel to allow us to reach every person in every town, in every city, in every state, in every nation. Thank you for giving through the Cooperative Program,” McLaurin said. “At the end of the first nine months of our fiscal year, because of churches like yours faithfully giving when pennies are being pinched and when spending has to be strategic, at the end of the first nine months, we are $10.6 million ahead.
“I want to thank you for your partnership. All of us are partnering together in different parts of the country to do one thing, and that’s to help get people off the road to hell, and to get them on the road to heaven.”
McLaurin offered free resources including “Next Level Stewardship” and “The Winning Way,” aimed at helping mobilize churches in every area of Southern Baptist life. He invited attendees to the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting June 11-14 in New Orleans.
“It is a joy for me to get to serve you,” McLaurin said. “My joy is to wash the feet of those that serve the bride of Christ.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
